Audio 4:28
Warnings issued over synthetic drugs

Will OckendenUpdated
Fri 7 Jun 2013, 1:20 PM AEST

Authorities have issued a stern warning to drug users to avoid synthetic drugs because there's no way of knowing what they're taking. A 17-year-old boy died after falling from a third-floor balcony in Sydney on Wednesday night, and police think he'd mistakenly taken a synthetic substance, which he thought was LSD.

Transcript

PETER LLOYD: Authorities have issued a stern warning to drug users to avoid synthetic drugs because there's no way of knowing what they're taking.

A 17-year-old boy died after falling from a third-floor balcony in Sydney on Wednesday night, and police think he'd mistakenly taken a synthetic substance, which he thought was LSD.

His family is pleading for the New South Wales Government to do more to ban the substance, saying it shouldn't be allowed to be purchased online.

Authorities say these kinds of drugs are difficult to control because many are often not technically illegal.

A recent New South Wales Government report estimated the trade in these dangerous drugs is worth $600 million a year, and the market is booming.

Will Ockenden reports.

WILL OCKENDEN: "Synthetic-drugs" are causing major headaches for police, policymakers and parents around the world.

No longer are drugs simply known as ecstasy, speed, cocaine or marijuana, now there's a veritable smorgasbord of choice.

MONICA BARRATT: When you look at a drug like heroin, cocaine, you see that they are actually derived from plants. When we look at some of the psycho-stimulants that arrived later than that, amphetamines, ecstasy etc, these are synthetic drugs and now we're seeing I guess a newer wave of synthetic drugs or what were once called designer drugs.

WILL OCKENDEN: Synthetic drugs are often designed to circumvent drug laws. The chemical substances mimic the effect of illegal drugs.

Dr Monica Barratt is a research fellow from the National Drug Research Institute and says many of the new synthetic drugs can be cheaper than $2 a hit.

MONICA BARRATT: There's been a lot of advances over the last few years in chemistry and in industrial chemical processes. There's also been a lot of advances in the ability to transfer information across the world as we've seen with the rise of the internet and that kind of thing.

WILL OCKENDEN: Seventeen-year-old Sydney student Henry Kwan is the latest to suffer the deadly effects of these drugs.

He died after falling from a third-floor balcony.

His father Stephen Kwan says just before his son jumped, he told his mother and his sister that he could fly. Stephen Kwan is pleading that more should be done to get the substance off the streets.

STEPHEN KWAN: All parents should be aware of this synthetic drug because it can be available everywhere.

WILL OCKENDEN: Synthetic drugs were also linked to the death of a truck driver last year on the New South Wales' Central Coast.

Researchers have been looking at the reasons why people would choose to take synthetic drugs.

Dr Monica Barratt says the main reasons appear to be curiosity, because they're not officially illegal, and because they're easily available.

MONICA BARRATT: Access to greater variety, access to better quality, convenience and also access to more information about vendors and sellers.

WILL OCKENDEN: Despite being around for many years, the synthetic drug market still operates in legal grey areas, avoiding consumer protection and marketing regulations.

The substance the student is Henry Kwan is believed to have taken is known by the clinical sounding name of 25B-NBOMe.

A New South Wales parliamentary inquiry into the laws surrounding these drugs handed down its report last week.

It recommended law changes and urged the police force to develop training around the use of synthetic substances.

NICK BINGHAM: You got to be very, very careful before you put anything in your mouth these days. You don't know how it's been made, it's come from, probably comes from a factory in China with no pharmaceutical or sterile restrictions.

WILL OCKENDEN: Nick Bingham is a detective superintendent, and is the commander of the New South Wales Police Drug Squad.

NICK BINGHAM: With the synthetic drugs that aren't yet illegal, there's not a lot we can do about it apart from warn people that they shouldn't indulge in this risky behaviour. Hopefully in the not too distant future we'll have most if not all of those synthetic substances put on our prohibited list.

WILL OCKENDEN: How do you get around the issue though that it seems that the manufacturers can tweak the underlying chemistry of the drug?

NICK BINGHAM: And that's exactly what's been occurring. Two years ago the Government banned seven synthetic substances from sale and made them prohibited drugs and unfortunately almost immediately after the manufacturers tweaked a few molecules and then they became quite legal drugs.

What we've been doing in the last couple of years nationally and within New South Wales is looking at ways that we can address that legislation and we're looking at the moment to have whole families or whole categories of these drugs scheduled rather than just have individual drug scheduled so hopefully that might alleviate that problem in the future.

PETER LLOYD: That's Nick Bingham, the commander of the New South Wales Police Drug Squad, ending Will Ockenden's report.